Bitcoin vs Stacks

Bitcoin is the first decentralized blockchain, secured by proof‑of‑work where miners expend SHA‑256 hash power to find valid blocks every ~10 minutes. The supply is capped at 21 million coins, with inflation halving roughly every four years—the most recent halving occurred on 20 April 2024. Upgrades like SegWit and Taproot have enabled second‑layer protocols such as the Lightning Network and emerging covenants via OP_CTV debates.

Stacks is a Bitcoin Layer‑2 secured by Proof‑of‑Transfer where miners commit BTC to mint STX and anchor blocks to Bitcoin every 10–15 minutes. Clarity smart contracts enable DeFi with Bitcoin finality, and the sBTC proposal aims to bring a two‑way peg for native BTC on chain. The Nakamoto upgrade scheduled for 2025 will reduce block times to five seconds and add probabilistic Bitcoin finality.